Obama Takes Questions on Reddit, Briefly Crashes Site

 

Here is another case where sudden load can at times crash the site,

By Jay Alabaster

August 30, 2012 08:27 AM ET

IDG News Service - President Barack Obama, currently on the campaign trail ahead of the upcoming November elections, made a brief virtual appearance on Reddit, a popular online discussion site, on Wednesday.

The president appeared on a forum entitled "I am Barack Obama, President of the United States -- AMA." He appeared under the site's "ask me anything" format, where a popular figure fields random questions from Reddit users, for about 30 minutes, answering questions from users about money in politics, the space program, support for small businesses, and beer at the White House.

Obama's forum had over 22,500 comments on it 15 hours after he appeared, compared to the hundreds of comments on other front-page topics on the site.

"Internet freedom is something I know you all care passionately about; I do too. We will fight hard to make sure that the internet remains the open forum for everybody -- from those who are expressing an idea to those to want to start a business," he said in a response to one query.

Reddit, which is known for supporting liberal causes, was temporarily inaccessible due to a surge of page views while he was answering questions, according to user comments.

Obama offered his condolences to victims of Hurricane Isaac, and said his toughest decision has been to increase the number of U.S. troops in Afghanistan, saying it had been effective but "knowing of the heroes that have fallen is something you never forget." He also answered lighter questions about his favorite basketball player -- Michael Jordan -- and balancing family life with his presidential responsibilities.

Question-and-answer forums on the site typically ask for proof of the speaker's identity, and Obama posted a message on his official Twitter account, as well as a picture of him hunched over an Apple laptop, apparently answering questions.

The campaign, which is relying heavily on grassroots online funding, set up a registration page for users of the site, titled "Redditors for Obama."

Obama said he participated in the forum after a campaign rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Reddit consists of a vast collection of forums on different topics. Registered users vote and comment on subjects and entries they find interesting, and the most popular items rise to the front page.

Zuckerberg Facebook Post Crashes Startup Website

 

I really don’t know whats so special about this event and why should IGrill site crash,maybe its just curiosity of the people to follow someone who is shining right now in today’s market.But as Performance Engineer its interesting incident, just sudden curiosity can generate so much traffic.

Anyways here is link for Press Release for this incident.

Zuck: "Awesome." Traffic: Off the charts

By Scott Budman

| Tuesday, Aug 21, 2012 | Updated 12:34 PM PDT

kind of like Oprah's book club, but for apps.

Mark Zuckerberg, taking to the social network he founded, to praise a startup's product. Big deal? Just ask iGrill, which saw traffic to its website go so high, the thing briefly crashed.

Zuck posted (on his Facebook page, natch) about iGrill, an 80 dollar piece of hardware that, when paired with an app, lets you keep track of the food you're grilling via bluetooth. So you could be in the kitchen or by the pool, and not lose track of the meat you're grilling.

The reaction was swift. iGrill says it typically gets about 70,000 hits on its website a month. After Zuckerberg's posting, traffic zoomed to 1,000 hits A MINUTE. Enough to temporarily crash the server.

Tens of thousands of people quickly "liked" the Facebook posting, and now iGrill is in the spotlight.

According to iGrill CEO Christopher Allen, the Zuckerberg endorsement was a surprise, and there's no financial arrangement between the two. It looks to be a good week for sales of iGrill, and of Fred steaks, which Zuckerberg says he was cooking at the time.

Scott can be found grilling on Twitter: @scottbudman

New York Voters Crash Online Registration System

 

Here is another website which crashed under public load,

More details on this incident in press release is as below,

August 17, 2012 By Noelle Knell

When New York added the ability for voters to register online earlier this month, officials hoped it would add a lot of citizens to the state’s voter rolls. According to the office of Gov. Andrew Cuomo, fewer than 64 percent of eligible New York residents are currently registered to vote, which ranks the state 47th in the country in voter registration.

The addition of the new online registration capability was especially timely, given the Aug. 19 deadline for those wishing to participate in the state’s primary election, scheduled for Sept. 13.

“At the DMV, or in their own homes, New Yorkers will now have a convenient and secure way to ensure they are able to register and exercise their right to vote,” said Cuomo in a statement.

And New Yorkers seem to have gotten the message. Twitter activity on Friday suggested that an influx of would-be voters brought the new system to its knees.

“As with all things new, when the announcement was made and publicized, more people than normal tried to get online to apply for registration at the same time,” said Jackie McGinnis, a spokesperson for the New York Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV).

McGinnis told Government Technology, via email, that the site did experience some temporary capacity issues. The announcement of the new service led to several times more new voter applications per day than it received when the system was in soft launch mode. As of Aug. 17, roughly 1,000 voters have submitted applications.

Officials are hopeful that the online capability will not only enhance access for New Yorkers, but save time for DMV staff members, who manually process 300,000 registration applications annually.

The online system also enables users to make changes to their address and political party affiliation, and offers additional foreign language capabilities. In addition to Spanish language materials, applications are now available in Korean, Chinese and Bengali.

Residents who are registering to vote using the online system must verify their identity with a driver’s license or state-issued identification card. The DMV website notes that its role is not to actually register voters, but rather to process registration applications and forward them to county elections boards for their review.

According to the Brennan Center for Justice at the New York University School of Law, 14 other states either offer online voter registration now or have plans to do so in the near future.

New York voters who want to participate in the upcoming presidential election must register by Oct. 12.

Saudi's Mobily awards IBM $280 million IT outsourcing contract

 

Here is another win for IBM from Saudi Arabia’s telecom operator.5 years contract are rare now a days in IT Services market and this win seems to be solid + point for IBM.Seems like its raining projects for IBM Folks,

Below is press release for this win,

Reuters – Sun, Aug 5, 2012

RIYADH (Reuters) - Saudi telco Etihad Etisalat (Mobily) has awarded IBM a five-year contract worth 1.05 billion riyals ($280 million) to outsource its information technology operations, it said in a bourse statement on Sunday.

The contract will be self-financed and will lead to improvements in Mobily's products as well as making the company more flexible, it said without further elaboration.

Mobily, which has a market value of $12.3 billion and is the No. 2 operator in Saudi Arabia, reported a 22-percent rise in second-quarter profit to 1.42 billion riyals last month, while its 2011 annual profit was 5.08 billion riyals.

Parent firm Etisalat could increase its 28 percent stake in the telco, its chief executive told Reuters in July, as the United Arab Emirates' firm focuses its attention on high growth, high population countries like Saudi.

Shares in Mobily dipped 0.8 percent on Sunday, trimming year-to-date gains to 24.3 percent.

($1 = 3.7505 Saudi riyals)

(Reporting by Angus McDowall; Editing by David French)

Olympics fans left fuming as London 2012 ticket website crashes

London Olympics seems to be generating lot of interest among online users and due to this ticketing site of the Olympics crashed.Hmm sometimes back in Media it was reported that Soasta would be testing this website and ensuring that it remains up and running at all times and under all cases,but it seems that something went wrong again or this media release seems to be incorrect.Though we don’t know as what the real reason,but I feel this incident should be part of my collection so adding this.

Below is press release for this crash,

By Jack Leather - 3rd August, 2012

Furious fans are missing out on thousands of tickets because the official website keeps crashing.

Customers were urged to ‘hang in there’ despite claims the site freezes and deletes orders.

Thousands of tickets are being released every day, with demand high for athletics, which begin today.

One in five seats reserved for officials was empty on Wednesday – hailed as a major improvement.

But some 200,000 football tickets have still not been taken up, along with another 75,000 in other sports – despite widespread claims that the Games would be a sell-out.

British Olympic Association chairman Colin Moynihan said yesterday that he remained concerned about the empty seats.

‘I don't feel any more relaxed today than I did two days ago,’ he said.

‘There's some initiatives that LOCOG have tried to take, [culture and sport secretary] Jeremy Hunt is still looking into this, but it is a subject which has got to tax the minds of those who are responsible for the ticketing each and every day between now and the end of the Games.

Atherton issues statement on ALMS site crash

 

Here is another site which possibly went down to user load.

Below is the press release for this incident,

August 04, 2012

With viewers unable to see much of the first hour of Saturday's American Le Mans Series race at Mid-Ohio due to its website crashing, series president/CEO Scott Atherton addressed what happened.

The race was set to be shown both on ALMS.com, rather than ESPN3.com as it had been for prior U.S. races, with ABC TV picking up the broadcast roughly one hour in at 2 p.m. Eastern. Since the series' new TV contract began last year, ALMS.com was the host site for streaming for international viewers, but ESPN3 had the U.S. feed.

"Today at the start of round six of the American Le Mans Series presented by Tequila Patrón from the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, our Series website - alms.com – crashed due to server issues," Atherton said. "We are immediately investigating the causes, but we realize that apologies are not enough for our fans and our partners both here and around the world that look to our web site for in-depth news, live timing and scoring, and video coverage of today's race.
"We've prided ourselves on the quality and growth of alms.com, and we know that today's crash is totally unacceptable. On behalf of the Series, I want to express our deep regret to everyone and pledge that like you – our fans – we will not accept another such failure."

Income tax department website crashes

Here is another case of an website crashing under load during peak season.This is an Indian Government Income tax website which crashed under the load of traffic.\

Below is press release for this incident.

MUMBAI: The volume of income-tax applications has increased after the department has made it mandatory for all those who earn over Rs 10 lakh per annum or own assets abroad to file their returns online, causing the department's website to crash intermittently as several assesees try to register before the due date.
But income-tax officers and employees have been helping taxpayers negotiate countdown to their annual income-tax returns all week. Tuesday, July 31, is the last day to file returns. "Application volume has surged, causing the department's website to crash intermittently as several assesees try to register before the due date," said chartered accountant Ashit Desai who could log on in his third try.
There is hope for those who miss the July-31 deadline. The I-T PRO said, "Those who have no outstanding taxes may file their returns after the date , but those who owe tax will have to pay interest on the amount."
The virtual migration has resulted in considerably fewer assesees at the BKC office. "The office at BKC is the one-point form collection centre for salaried people. Businesspersons and those having other sources of income can visit I-T offices in their areas," said a helpdesk officer.
Unlike previous years, when long queues were visible at tax collection counters, a trickle of applicants arrived last week. On Monday,the penultimate day for filing, an average of three or four persons could be seen at each collection counter in BKC.
For the first time, the department had installed tax kiosks manned by tax return preparers (TRPs) to help people fill forms and do basic calculations. The kiosks functioned for three days last week across 12 locations including Andheri, Byculla, Bandra and Navi Mumbai.
Consultation was available free of cost but the TRPs were not authorized to accept returns. They were neither I-T department staffers nor, in some cases, chartered accountants. Assesees had to still visit I-T offices at BKC or Aaykar Bhavan to do so,or assign the task to a CA. But they could engage TRPs for Rs 250. As the help desk was not adequately publicized, few took advantage. "This is the first year we are reaching out, and the aim is to show we are not mere collectors but render service to taxpayers ," said Anand Mudaliar, who oversaw the kiosk at Vidya Vikas Hall, Andheri